Jonathan Katz, PhD, is a pioneering academic and gay activist
who works at the intersection of art history and queer history. In
the 1990s, he became the first full-time American academic to be
tenured in gay and lesbian studies. He founded the Harvey Milk
Institute, the world’s largest queer studies institute, and
serves as president and chief curator of New York City's Leslie
Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. As a specialist in Cold
War-era art, Katz is concerned with the question of why the
American avant-garde came to be dominated and defined by queer
artists during what was perhaps the single most homophobic decade
in this nation’s history. His recent work includes
co-curating “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American
Art,” an exhibition at the Smithsonian National Portrait
Gallery that broke ground by focusing on LGBTQ (lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender and queer) issues. Katz directs UB’s
PhD program in visual studies.

Jonathan D. KatzAssociate Professor of Visual Studies
Department of Art
College of Arts and Sciences